This song was popular among the troops of the “Centauro del Norte” in the Mexican Revolution
It is one of the most popular songs in Mexico, it is commonly accompanied by mariachis.
In Mexico one of the most popular songs is the famous “Cucaracha”, which is accompanied by dancing and is even performed by mariachis. Despite having slight variations in the lyrics, it always begins the same way: “The cockroach, the cockroach, can no longer walk.”
It is one of the songs that is passed from generation to generation and according to various historians it has its origin in the time of the Mexican Revolution, since it was a Mexican corrido, however, others affirm that it is a song that comes from a long time ago and that it also comes from Europe in 1818.
Although in the Mexican Revolution the lyrics were changed to better represent the identity, It is a Spanish corridothat Fernán Caballero and Rodríguez Morín brought with them, who wrote sonnets similar to what we know todaythat were eventually implemented in the Mexican versions, however they were only a few fragments.
It is a corrido that comes from of Spain and that underwent modifications in the Mexican Revolution.
In the novel La Quijotita y su prima by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi in 1819, mentioned: “A navy captain who came on a frigate between several sonnecitos brought the one for La Cucaracha”, which is why it is understood that it was a song that already existed beforeof the Mexican Revolution, but it was during this period that it became popular and was even used by Francisco Villa’s troops.
The writer and historian Paco Ignacio Taibo II in his book Pancho Villa, a narrative biography reported that the Centaur of the North continually made fun of Victoriano Huerta and said that in the official photos when he was not wearing a military uniform he looked like a cockroach.
< p class=”paragraph”>He was also known at the time for his habits that he liked alcohol to the point ofbeing drunk and was also a marijuana user. Huerta used to consume large amounts of cognac which made his walk clumsy, but he was also lame and had cataracts which prevented him from moving easily despite being sober.
Pancho Villa continually made fun of alcoholism and drug addiction of Victoriano Huerta.
“The cockroach, the cockroach can no longer walk, because it doesn’t have any, because it lacks marijuana to burn. Poor little Madero, almost everyone has failed him, Huerta the drunken bandit, he is an ox for the plow”, was the song that became popular among the troops.
In the author’s text it was also mentioned that the piece with those lyrics had become popular months before among Pablo González’s troops; he had composed it using his memory of children’s songs, Rafael Sánchez Escobar from Veracruz who played the piano in a brothel.
Quirino is a Mexican singer-songwriter recognized by compose cute sky. Photo: INBA
The author Paco Ignacio pointed out that La Cucaracha was written for Christmas 1916by the singer-songwriter Quirino Mendoza Cortés, who is also recognized for composing < b>Little Sky. Similarly, it was stated that other songs that were sung at that time, in addition to the cucaracha, were La Adelita, El torito and Las tres pelonas.
He also explained that people used to greet Villa’s troops with applause and the songs that were most widely heard at the time, such as La Cucaracha. There was even a rumor that Villa smoked marijuana, to this day that is still believed and the image of the centaur from the north smoking a cigarette is related to the stanza “I had no marijuana to burn” with a wink to the verse of the song.